


Tiny Cartons of Milk

by chaosLydia



Series: 14,000 Things to be Happy About [3]
Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Thrawn learning about humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 15:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16349636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosLydia/pseuds/chaosLydia
Summary: Thrawn doesn't understand human fads."Tiny Cartons of Milk" page 55 from 14,000 Things to be Happy About





	Tiny Cartons of Milk

**Author's Note:**

> Continuing to practice flash fiction as I have writer's block on my main fanfic.

“Why is this being documented?” Thrawn stared in complete confusion at his datapad. He flicked through multiple pictures the crew of the Thunder Wasp posted to a social chat. The communal thread was shared among everyone to provide a sense of unity and keep everyone connected.

Eli pushed away from a desk and rolled his chair up beside Thrawn. He watched the Chiss thumb through picture after picture of small glass jars. They were little enough to fit in one hand. Many of them came in different colors, some had small items inside them. One crew member boasted about the tiny Imperial Star Destroyer he fit into his bottle.

“It’s a fad,” Eli said watching the images.

“What is a ‘fad,’” Thrawn turned his head. He still didn’t grasp most colloquialism.

Eli thought for a moment, “It’s a popular craze. People think if they do this, they’ll be cooler.”

“I do not see how this impacts body temperature.”

“Cooler meaning better their social standings.”

“Ah,” Thrawn nodded. Another word added to his mental dictionary. He looked over the photos, “The crew members purchase small, overpriced jars of milk.”

“Apparently that milk is popular on Coruscant with rich people. It’s gone another step with people putting items in the jar once they’re done with it. They’re called Impossible Bottles, mostly used for ships in a bottle. We used to make them on Lysatra in school,” Eli pushed his chair back over to his desk.

Thrawn shook his head at the many ways humans passed time and what they considered important. Though, some of the designs of the items in the bottles were beautifully crafted, small pieces of artwork, “Ships are often the choice for this?”

“Traditionally,” Eli picked up his own datapad to return to his work. “But with this new fad, I’ve seen all sorts of things crammed inside those bottles: statues, coins, fish or even shellfish holding an item, jewels, plants-“

“Stop,” Thrawn stood suddenly and strode to Eli. He leaned over the back of his friend’s chair, “Bring up the reports from the fishermen on Paklarn.”

Eli blinked at the sudden shift but followed orders, “Okay… Let’s see…”

He scrolled through the various lists until Thrawn shot out his hand and poked the screen. The Chiss narrowed his eyes, “That one.”

Eli read it carefully, “It just mentions that some makorrs have been following a couple of mollusk boats around. They’re going through an odd migration and disrupting the fish catching patterns.”

Thrawn stood up straight, tucking his arms behind his back, “It is not an odd migration. Those are smugglers. They’re hiding items in the mollusk shells and discarding the meat into the water.”

Eli caught on, “Which is making the predators follow them. It’s an easy meal.”

“Come, Ensign Vanto,” the smallest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the Chiss’ mouth. “We must inform Commander Cheno of our discovery.”

Eli got to his feet and followed, “ _Our_? What did I do?”

“Shellfish holding an item placed inside little glass milk bottles,” Thrawn explained like it was obvious. “Your description brought me to the conclusion. It was a joint effort from our previous conversation.”

Eli chuckled, “I guess this dumb fad got us somewhere.”


End file.
